A new study carried out by the Spanish Society of Pneumonia and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) has verified that smokers of rolling tobacco have a higher concentration of carbon monoxide in their exhaled air, mainly because in each puff of this type of cigarettes will burn more paper.
“Smoking kills”. That’s how resounding the warnings on tobacco packages are. However, not all types of tobacco are equally harmful to the body. This new study entitled Rolling Tobacco and published this year in the journal Smoking Prevention provides new evidence on the use of non-manufactured tobacco.
According to this analysis, rolling tobacco smokers have higher concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) in their exhaled air than manufactured tobacco smokers (27.9 versus 21.48 ppm), despite the fact that the latter consume a higher number of cigarettes per day (18.5 vs 27.9 cigarettes). As Dr. Carlos Jiménez Ruiz, Director of the Tobacco Research Program of (SEPAR) points out, “the explanation for the main result obtained in our study is due to the fact that with rolling tobacco, more paper is burned with each puff ”.
This report thus contradicts the popular belief that rolling tobacco is “healthier” than conventional cigarettes.
In addition, the study has analyzed what type of people smoke rolling tobacco and why. The results reveal that the use of rolling tobacco is more prevalent in men, generally younger, with fewer economic resources, with a lower level of education and who live in rural areas. 30% of rolling tobacco smokers confess that they switched to using this type of tobacco thinking it was healthier . In this regard, Dr. Jiménez points out that “this type of smoker has a greater dependence on nicotine and has less motivation to quit than conventional cigarette smokers.”
Likewise, the study points out that all these factors, together with the self-efficacy of rolling tobacco, make it difficult to quit this harmful habit. However, it is true that, despite this, these groups of smokers have obtained high abstinence rates at six months of follow-up, reaching figures higher than 60% in those who used pharmacological treatment with varenicline .
Finally, another relevant data is that only 33% of the brands indicate the content of nicotine and tar on the product package. In the case of carbon monoxide, the labeling is null. “It is essential that the health administration extreme vigilance for compliance with the law by companies that market rolling tobacco and to ensure that the general population receives adequate information on the composition of the product they are consuming,” says the Dr. Jiménez Ruiz.
